To break free
by latin master
Summary: A sealing accident, a manipulative demon and two clans. Try not to die from the sheer chaos.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Naruto opened his eyes to darkness.

Well, not accurately darkness. He was in what seemed to be a sewer, an exceptionally well-lighted sewer. The light was red, and gave the water and walls a sinister look. Naruto suddenly realized he was waist-deep in what basically amounted to be sewer water (surprisingly clear sewer water) and had the natural reaction.

"Ugh, what the hell?!" Naruto jumped from the sewer waters to the wall sticking there with chakra "That's just nasty!"

"**Now you know how I feel." **A deep voice growled.

Naruto froze and slowly turned his head.

Blood red fur?

Check.

Floppy ears that would look better placed on a rabbit?

Check.

Teeth that were about the same size as Naruto's whole body?

Check.

Killing intent that made Zabuza look like a civilian?

Big old whopping check.

The staring went on between Naruto and Kyuubi for a long time before Naruto broke the ice.

"You know I have the feeling that I am supposed to say something brash and stupid to the nine-tailed menace within visual distance of myself like 'you owe me rent'." Naruto gulped "At the moment however my mouth can't speak out the words."

A low evil chuckle came from the kyuubi **"Interesting to see that fear does make you smarter."**

Naruto snapped out of his shock "What am I doing here?"

"**Your seal was altered by the deviant's technique. You are here because you're unconscious." **The Kyuubi growled.

"Wait what?" Naruto intelligently uttered.

The kyuubi rolled his eyes **"Look to the side."**

Naruto did so and found himself nearly blinded by the radiance. There was a whole section of the wall which was covered by what looked like complicated circles. He could see kanji , and occasional nonsensical words printed on there.

This was nearly all blotted out by a brightly glowing pentagram. He could see the kanji for metal, fire, wood, water, and earth on each of the five points. It pulsated every now and then.

"…what is that?" Naruto asked shocked.

The Kyuubi snarled** "That is what was intended to be on the cage you see." **Kyuubi paused for a second **"If that had occurred you would have been truly unconscious, and not simply in your mental space." **

"So what screwed it up?" Naruto asked.

"**The seal you see before you is one of the most complicated pieces of fuinjutsu to ever exist. It owes much of its complexity to the efforts of the shinigami-despite what that insipid town of primates will tell you." **The kyuubi muttered.

Naruto wanted to interrupt but was silenced with a look **"The seal due to its massive energy, has possessed a kind of limited sentience. This sentience is mostly wrapped around the concept of keeping me inside here, and has performed all kinds of tricks to keep me in here." **The fox glared at the bars and hit them with its tails making the water surrounding the jail cell burst away.

The bars were unmoved.

The kyuubi calmed himself **"Your fellow blonde monkey placed a few seals that were deemed unnecessary by the sentience. They weren't actively harming the seal so it left it alone. It's quite limited in that regard." **

"**So when the deviant did his technique, the sentience recognized it as a threat and shunted it off to the seal's more…auxillary functions." **The kyuubi gestured to the brightly glowing section.

Naruto was staring at the wall "What do the unnecessary seals do?" Naruto muttered.

Kyuubi heard it with his extra-sensitive ears and grinned macabrely. Mixed in with the unnecessary seals was a seal that forbid the Kyuubi from speaking about the seal's functions to anyone (except in the most general terms). Even if the seals were compromised (as they were now) the sentience considered it a necessary function.

The Yondaime however had screwed up in an important detail.

The sentience was always secondary to the host's will; in this case Naruto.

Naruto had just said he wondered what the seals did.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

In the outside Sakura continued laying traps blissful to the talkings between her dumb teammate and infinitely powerful demon.

She would regret that blissfulness in the future.

"**Do you want to know about the seals functions?" **came the polite voice from the kyuubi.

Naruto looked at the fox with narrowed eyes "What do you get out of this? The more I know about the seal, the better I can contain you."

The kyuubi's grin, if possible, increased **"I have my reasons. But if you really don't trust me that much I can make a vow to tell the truth for the next thirty minutes. Would that satisfy you jailer?"** The voice twisted into sheer hatred on the last word and the grin changed into a hateful parody of its former self.

Naruto stared, trying to find the angle that the kyuubi was working. Finding none, he answered cautiously "Yes, that would satisfy me."

Kyuubi drew itself upright **"I, the lord of the nine, do vow to tell the truth in regard to questions proposed by Uzumaki Naruto for the next thirty minutes of time today." **

"So what do the unnecessary seals do?" Naruto pointed out to the wall.

"**One blocks your bloodline.** **The others are composed of a variety of other functions including regulation of independence, conditioning and aspects of your body." **The kyuubi explained sounding (disturbingly) like Iruka on a bad day.

"…huh?" Naruto naturally commented.

The kyuubi rolled his eyes quietly muttering about 'idiot containers' and 'cruel death gods' **"It's a loyalty seal, and death seal moron."**

'That' Naruto privately thought 'did not sound good'

"What exactly do those two seals do?" Naruto asked hoping he was wrong.

Kyuubi seemed to take great pleasure in proving him right **"The loyalty seal does as it says on the tin. It commands loyalty to a concept. Naturally, even if you primates are incredibly stupid your minds are too difficult to constrain to such a concept. So the seal needs to dumb down the subject to incredible levels in order to work properly. The subject will be an incredible idiot, who will often have no impulse control and is incredibly naïve about complex concepts. Sound **_**familiar**_**?" **

Naruto sat down hard, ignoring the fact that the water was up till chest level.

'_Congratulations Naruto you are a genin now.'_

'_I will become Hokage and earn the respect of them'_

'_I want to be a shinobi Oji-san!'_

'_I will be a shinobi of the leaf' _

Had it all been fake?

No it couldn't be. The Kyuubi had to be lying to him, in some cruel attempt to break him.

Then Naruto remembered the fact that the demon had sworn to tell the truth for thirty minutes.

For an instance, Naruto felt true soul-crushing despair. His whole life since day one had been programmed towards being loyal to Konoha. The blonde bastard had essentially created his personality to be what it was today.

He was just a puppet on strings.

Naruto cried for several minutes while Kyuubi watched.

The Kyuubi sat and basked in the despair of his host. Even if he was still imprisoned there was nothing quite like making a person break, especially with nothing but the truth, that made Kyuubi feel good. All he needed was that human food…what was it called…popcol or something.

It was ironically the one faction in Naruto's life that didn't have to do with being a shinobi that saved him.

Ichiraku.

Naruto remembered the many conversations that he had with the kind ramen stand owner. Many of them had nothing to do with Konoha. They were simple conversations on life, and how to do this and that.

That hadn't been fake.

Naruto drew himself up, drawing on his considerable will power (which also, Naruto found out pleasantly, wasn't fake). Naruto stared at the Kyuubi with impressive hatred "You are a complete bastard you know that?"

"**Such lovely words you say. It warms the pit in my chest. Aren't you wondering about the rest of the seals?" **Kyuubi pointed out with glee.

Naruto snarled "Yeah, you mentioned a death seal. I assume it causes my demise."

The fox nodded **"Correct. To be more accurate it is supposed to cause your death when you are twenty years old. It will cause your demise by inserting antagonists inside your synaptic clefts, freezing your nervous system. Then it will make your body produce massive dosages of carbon monoxide making you suffocate in considerable agony. Finally it will mess with your lower brain preventing many of your vital functions." **The fox enjoyed watching the confused expression on Naruto's face.

To Naruto most of the conversation had flown over his head, but he did understand the most important words "It sounds like he was expecting me to have the ability to regenerate. Why would he want to cause my death anyway; I'm holding back you from destroying the place he gave his soul to protect."

The Kyuubi whistled **"You noticed that logical flaw. You see Naruto you are something that is completely terrifying to any shinobi who knows anything about jinchuuriki construction; which thanks to my actions and the hidden village's desire to keep it quiet are few."**

Naruto waited for the answer but soon realized that the Kyuubi was dragging the moment out "Well? What are the hidden village's so terrified about a kid who couldn't even pass his academy records."

The kyuubi grinned wide, and Naruto suddenly got the uncomfortable feeling that the answer wasn't going to be nice

"**Your Completion."**

Sakura grunted as she did a kawarami, and switched to an above position. She lunged down to attack the cocky sound-nin with two kunai.

This would have been a really good time for Naruto to be awake, she thought annoyed.

"…."

The kyuubi watched in interest as Naruto patted himself. Interest became annoyance when he started looking at his mind.

"**What are you doing?" **

"Checking myself. I gotta tell you Kyuubi I really don't feel incomplete." Naruto commented.

The kyuubi growled **"As a human you are complete. As a jinchuuriki you are not; something that you are hardly alone in. No jinchuuriki in history has ever reached the pinnacle of completion." **

"What's this completion?" Naruto asked "It sounds like something really fancy and powerful."

The kyuubi rolled his eyes and wondered if he could put in for a switch of hosts **"Be quiet, and listen. I'm not saying this more than once. A jinchuuriki, according to shinobi, is a human that has a demon bound inside him and can use a percentage of the demon's power. This makes sense, doesn't it." **

Naruto nodded.

"**It's completely wrong. A jinchuuriki is supposed to be a permanent union between demon and human. A human's intellect and ability to reason combined with a demon's power and natural connection to the elements. It was supposed to be a symbiosis; demons give human access to their power while the humans let the demons have a taste of cognitive function. Demons were formerly able to have cognitive function on their own before a certain **_**clan**_** sacrificed a great many people and part of themselves to chain it." **Naruto for the first time in his life felt a bijuu's full killing intent. How any human could stand up to something like that he would never know. All he knew was that his legs were screaming at him to run away as far as possible from the dangerous predator.

The kyuubi calmed himself down and spotted Naruto's terrified face **"The man who devised the method was notoriously a hanyou who worked for the military. Before he could show his findings to a daimyo (don't ask me which) a ninja caught wind to it and proceeded to take the plans and kill the sealmaster. The plans were by the way incomplete, and for that can be laid the imperfection within jinchuuriki." **

"**Seals that contain the bijuu can be categorized into two functions; containment and transmission of power. Naturally the more contained a bijuu, the less transmission there is. Most seals I have seen focus more on transmission and leave containment a second priority. You've seen what happens when they do that." **

Naruto blinked, and wondered what Kyuubi was talking about.

"**Gaara, Idiot." **

"He has a bijuu inside him?" Naruto gasped. If that was how most jinchuuriki acted….

"**You don't need to fear going insane boy. This seal focus more on containment than transmission-it has to. Otherwise your fragile body would be turned into so much ash, by my power." **Naruto relaxed **"Most seals only last for a short time. The demonic power is like water to metal; eventually the bars are going to rust and give way. The last time that happened they had a demon stuck inside a human's body in the middle of a hidden village. The carnage was delightful." **Naruto edged away from the snickering fox.

"**Your seal is unique. I could try battering it down for all eternity and the seal would still be its pristine self down to the last second of time's existence. This is NOT due to the blonde rat's genius; shinobi far more skilled and wise than him tried to contain me before him. They all failed. It is more due to the contract he executed and the being who enforces the contract. That damn shinigami." **The kyuubi spat out.

"**I'm pretty sure that he was horrified when he realized the only way to restrain me from destroying this delightful hovel was to permanently seal me into a human. He would be creating the one thing that was possibly every village's worst nightmare; a complete jinchuuriki. In time you would become something far more than human yet not demon. My demonic power would thrum through your chakra system and you would grow to outlive any human provided someone wouldn't kill you-decidedly unlikely considering the rate your regeneration would grow." **

"**To any shinobi village, a free willed jinchuuriki who is mentally stable and couldn't be sealed away would be anathema." **

"**So he planted the seal to make sure that you were loyal to Konoha, and to kill you. After all, if you were loyal to Konoha, they could have simply told you that the death seal was necessary to prevent Konoha's destruction. You would have cheerfully gone to your demise if you had thought it would benefit Konoha. " **

"…." Naruto silently thought. He found himself horrified when he found that he would have quite happily jumped off a bridge if it meant that Konoha would never be destroyed by the Kyuubi. He quelled the bile forming in his throat.

"**Judging by your expression, you have just had a thought that runs directly against loyalty to Konoha. As you can tell, this means that those seals are being blocked from working by that five-point seal. This is a truly fortunate event, and one that if you tell anyone they will seek to reverse to control you." **Kyuubi eyed making sure that Naruto understood him.

"I understand; don't tell anyone about this or they will put you back under control."

"**Good. I have a proposition for you that will make both of our situations more tolerable." **

"….I need more detail into this proposition." Naruto stated; he wasn't about to make a deal with the devil unless he was told everything.

"**Smart decision. You will give me a connection to your senses, and change the form of the seal to something that will allow me more room than this dismal contraption." **He growled, jerking his head to the cage **"I also desire…parole of a sort from this prison. These are my conditions, and I will not change them for anything. There are two other conditions that are more flexible." **

"What do I get out of this?" Commanded Naruto.

The Kyuubi shifted and Naruto realized that he had quite possibly taken the tone as an insult **"What you get is quite simple. The amount of chakra that shifts through the seal will be tripled, further increasing your number of demonic attributes and benefits. Your chakra pool will increase from its pitiful size to something more respectable. Finally, you will get the greatest gift of all; access to the wealth of knowledge I have gathered on you primates for the last millennia." **

Naruto thought for a second "Two questions: By parole do you mean permanent or temporary? Will the 'wealth of knowledge' be giving honest information?" To be honest Naruto was excited; who knew how much information a millennia old fox could have? Information was a shinobi's best friend.

"**As much as I would desire it, permanent parole would be impossible from this seal. The seal would recognize the fact that I was absent for a rather long period of time and…discorporate me. It will have to be temporary; in effect I will become your **_**familiar**_**."** The way the Kyuubi spat out the last word told Naruto how he felt about that.

Naruto did some quick calculations. Contrary to public opinion, Naruto could sense chakra. He just couldn't do it very well and didn't advertise the fact. The less the teachers felt they had to shut down the better.

What he did sense was the sheer power of the Kyuubi; he hadn't and suspected he wouldn't feel so much chakra ever again. Unless he did something stupid…like try to fight a god. He quickly calculated how much chakra a single tail would have, and how to cut it down to a sizable margin.

The figures he came up with made him shiver in raw fear. A kage had in average, 200 units of chakra at their disposal. This was typically seen as the uppermost barrier of chakra production. Naruto had broken the scale when tested in the academy (not that they would have told him how much chakra he had anyway…). So he felt pretty sure that his chakra level was at kage level or beyond.

One tail was coming up to something like _1250_ units alone. Naruto then understood how, despite their elemental limitations and lack of ninjutsu, a bijuu was a sheer force of destruction.

"The energy you will have when you are on your parole will be 1% of your chakra. No more, No less." Naruto didn't want to give the Kyuubi any more power than necessary. As it was he felt that 1 percent was too much to give him.

Kyuubi growled and hatred gleamed in its eyes. Naruto got prepared to jump away in case he tried to claw him up through the cage. Finally the Kyuubi nodded tersely.

Before Naruto could speak again, the Kyuubi interrupted **"Your shrill voice hurts me ears. So before you ask if the information will be honest; it will be. So I say, lord of nine." **

The look in the Kyuubi's eyes disturbed Naruto; it was scheming. A scheming millennia old fox, couldn't be good for your health; especially if said fox hated you. **"Given the…restriction you have placed on me I have a couple of other conditions to name. The elimination of the Uchicha bloodline, and the elimination of the Senju bloodline." **

"I am _not_ engaging in Genocide." Naruto furiously shouted.

Kyuubi sneered **"You won't have to. There are ways to seal away bloodlines; besides both clans are on the verge of dying out anyway. The senju clan have two members, and the Uchicha have three members. With my power and a bit of subtle talent it is possible to eliminate them." **

Naruto frowned "Tell me about both bloodlines. I need to know what I'm getting into." He was not going to step lightly into this.

"**The Uchicha is a clan of arrogance and madness. Their bloodline gives them the ability to see through pitiful human illusions, copy the ninja arts provided they see handseals and body movements. It also increases their ability to perceive, allowing them to see movements of human opponents by way of chakra. They can hypnotize suggestive messages, making illusions easier for them and providing them a way for their opponent to think they can tell the future." **

Naruto gaped "The bloodline sounds powerful."

"**It is. However the part of the bloodline that allows them to simply copy information they see, tends to not handle information assimilation well. Their minds suffer from it as a result producing the common…Uchicha madness. There are various theories on whether the arrogance is genetic or instilled in them by people surrounding them." **

"Wait a minute they go insane by use of their bloodline?!" Naruto shouted.

The kyuubi glared at him **"Such a powerful bloodline, especially one with infernal origins would come with a heavy price tag. The Hyuuga already suffered from a heavy streak of arrogance when they made the Sharingan; I should know. Are you aware that the Hyuuga can see chakra?" **

Naruto snorted "That's their most famous attribute; of course I'm aware they can see it."

"**Good. So imagine my feelings when a Hyuuga encounters me on the street while I'm in my human form, and proceeds to activate his eyes in order for me to 'know my place'. He realized that I wasn't human and called in reinforcements from his clan. Then he demanded to know what I was in the most appalling rude tone." **

"Let me guess; you being the image of politeness took massive offense at their rudeness." Naruto deadpanned.

"**Exactly. Who can blame if in destroying a Hyuuga outpost, I accidentally destroyed the town? I **_**sincerely**_** didn't mean to."**Naruto snorted at the sugary innocence in Kyuubi's tone.

"Anything else?"

"**Actually yes. The sharingan has a step beyond the three tomoe; the Mangenkyou sharingan. Because my infernal power was used to produce the little bastard deviants, I have a rather intimate connection to them. The mangenkyou sharingan is obtained by assimilating the soul of someone dear to you, and causing considerable damage to your soul. In essence, they need to kill their best friend/most dearly beloved relative." **

"….Why the hell did Konoha let them exist here in the first place?" Naruto yelled.

"**Isn't it obvious? Uchicha brought power to the village, despite their feud with the Senju. Konoha isn't as pristine good as they like to think they are. Anyway, the Mangekyou Sharingan is unique to each wielder. All of them induce blinding, and damage to the soul the more times used." **

"So why do you want them dead? It can't be for the goodness inside your-do you even have a heart?" Naruto wondered.

"**I am an energy being; of course I don't have any internal organs. The reason I want them dead, is because of their power over you. Their ability to hypnotize allows them to subjugate your will and by proxy subjugate my will. They are a threat; do you understand?" **

"Yeah-wait, you said they were three uchicha alive. Who are the other two?"

"**The brother to your dear teammate, and the parasite, Uchicha Madara. Both are dangerous, but Itachi even more so. He doesn't nearly have the overblown ego and underestimating nature that Madara does." **The Kyuubi commented.

"I'm going to have a lot of history lessons aren't I?" Naruto remarked.

"**True history; not the garbage they have fed you." **The kyuubi growled **"Of the two, the Senju are the easiest to handle. The clan was formed from former shamans who had an eternally deep connection to Nature and the elements; much the way we did. This allowed them-with suitable amplification- to control bijuu of up till four tails. Anymore than that, and sacrifices were needed to have the necessary power." **Naruto stepped back from the sheer emotion that happened when he mentioned the clan.

"Ok, I take it the clan pissed you off something fierce?" Naruto dryly said.

"**They were the ones who took away our cognition, by means of sacrificing thousands of people. Well, they managed to take the other eight; I had contingency plans laid. The clan suffered multiple tragic **_**accidents**_** in the years after that. It has culminated with there only being two left." **The kyuubi smugly said.

"I didn't know you were that big into manipulations." Naruto was quite frankly, wondering what he had just gotten into.

"**How do you think I stayed unsealed for so long? Unlike my former brothers and sisters, I saw the value in manipulating you primates long before they did. I even manipulated my own nature into producing non-elemental chakra so I would be able to produce all elements and elemental combinations." **

"They do say imitation is the most sincere form of admiration." Naruto muttered

"**The senju have two members left; one does not have the bloodline and poses no threat even if she carries the amplifier. The other possesses the bloodline, but doesn't carry the amplifier. If it isn't possible to kill the bloodline one off, you must make sure that the amplifier and him never meet." **

"So in essence, you are asking for me to finish off two dying clans by either a) killing them or b) sealing away their bloodline. This two bloodlines also happen to be loved by Konoha, the village which I serve and has been subtly pulling my strings since I was born." Naruto thought for a moment "It can't be too hard."

"**Do we have a deal?" **The kyuubi snarled.

"We have a deal." Naruto declared.

"**Now for my end of the deal." **The kyuubi said gleefully.

Naruto's eyes widened when he saw a massive wave of chakra appear in front of the cage.

"This is going to suck, isn't it."

"**Nighty night, **_**Sasuke's best friend**_**."**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Dislocation

Burning red sensation filled Naruto. He could feel his chakra system struggling to cope with the immense pressure. His nails dug into his palms in a pathetic attempt to stop the massive pain.

Naruto was a jinchuuriki. What most people didn't realize was this included a variety of benefits besides healing quickly. He was one of the few people on the human world who could stroll into Makai and breathe without dying from the Youki-infused air.

That didn't mean that a shit-load of youki going through him didn't hurt.

It just meant he could survive it.

His reaction in light of this wasn't all that surprising "Fucking tailed bastard! Auuugh!"

His screa-er, manly roar drew the attention of all 8 participants in the clearing. Hyuuga Neji's eyes narrowed in interest and he observed the cave where the screaming came from.

Sakura scowled and wiped her tears from when she had stopped Sasuke. Sasuke on the other hand moved away from her discomforted by the show of emotion, and angry about the loss of that power. All the others looked curious at the cave, while Ino voiced what everyone was silently thinking.

"Oh he wakes up _after _the fight for our lives not _before_."

Naruto blinked into the sunlight to watch all eight konoha-nin staring at him. He stared back at them not knowing what to think.

So he decided to ask the question "You wouldn't be trying to take our scrolls would you?"

All six non-team 7 shinobi looked at each other and then back at the weakened members of team 7. Now that he mentioned it….

Naruto saw the lightbulbs flick over the other teams.

"Oh shit."

_wertyuiowertyuiopwertyuiweruiopwertyuiop wertyuiowertyuiopwertyuiweruiopwertyuiop_

"Naruto, why did you have to mention that to them. The only reason we managed to get away was because the creepy one was exhausted and you mobbed the Hyuuga with your stupid clones!" Sakura yelled at him while checking the fish over the fire.

"…" The Uchicha chose to mutely glare at him, too tired to do much else. The power-up might have been intense but so was the chakra low.

"I'm sorry for doing something that stupid. I really am." Naruto muttered. He really had done something stupid by drawing the teams attention to the scrolls.

"…." Both Sakura and Sasuke stared at him.

One of the most obnoxious characteristics of Naruto was that he would never apologize after doing something stupid. It was like he didn't see anything wrong with doing stupid things and just laughing it off. It had made Sakura hit him on the head more than anything else.

"….That's fine, just don't do i-" Sakura was interrupted by Sasuke who threw her a quick glare, and made a hand gesture.

"Who are you? Talk and I won't burn you into a fireball." Sasuke growled at him.

It wasn't like he was worried about the dead-last. Said dead-last was his teammate though, the only one that got to kill him was him. He needed him to complete the sharingan.

Somewhere inside there, might have been a small fragment of genuine worry for his teammate but he squashed it handily.

"Hello, I'm Naruto. You know the supposed dead-last who once tied you to a chair on the day we graduated?" Naruto asked rhetorically, hoping that would be evidence enough.

He really didn't want to find out if he could regenerate fast enough to survive a fireball.

Sasuke relaxed, although he looked angry at the reminder. His hand wasn't in the seal for fire anymore anyway.

The aggressive display had lighted up a memory inside Naruto though. Something the Kyuubi had said before sending him to the real world. Naruto struggled to think, which looked oddly cute on him from Sakura's perspective.

'**Nighty night, Sasuke's best friend!'**

Oh.

Oh shit.

This was _not_ good.

He was the best friend (or at least the closest thing to a friend) to a member of a clan who gained ultimate power by killing said friend. Not only that, Sasuke was valued among Konoha while Naruto wasn't. If Naruto were to die under mysterious circumstances very few people would shed a tear.

He wasn't even sure the rest of rookie nine would shed a tear. Hinata would probably.

The rest?

They would be sad, alright-but it would be the sadness of losing a nin that worked for the same side they did. Not the sadness of someone who had lost an actual friend.

He had a few points in his favor though.

One, Sasuke wasn't nearly smart enough to think to kill Naruto silently and without fuss. Sasuke despite his title, genius, was a rather direct thinker. He thought linearly, and couldn't think of any alternate solutions to the same problems.

He suspected that was a problem with all geniuses but didn't have enough proof.

Second, there was absolutely no evidence that Sasuke actually knew about the Mangenkyou. His clan had died out when he was about seven-one didn't spill clan secrets to children. It was quite possible that the Mangenkyou would die with Sasuke and it would never be heard of again.

He somehow suspected the knowledge that they gained ultimate power by killing their comrades wouldn't exactly pass mustard with Konoha; Konoha was big on teamwork. So they obviously kept it a secret.

He visualized how Sasuke would react if he told him that his bloodline would make him insane the more he used it. Oddly enough, the image was never about a psychotic and furious Uchicha bearing down on him. Rather, it was about many fireballs raining down on him while Kunai peppered him between barrages.

Not going to happen.

He would have to do it quietly then.

Now if he could only get to Kakashi-

Oh that was the person he was forgetting.

Kakashi had a sharingan as well. It was quite possible that insanity had already taken hold; what kind of person reads porn in bare daylight?

Then again shinobi had different standards of what constituted insanity than civilians.

Maito Gai should have been stuffed into a hospital with the best security in the world for his antics alone.

He had even infected Lee.

The most important thing was to determine whether Sasuke actually knew about it before moving forward.

Naruto cleared his throat, and went to get a fish. Then nonchalantly began the ruse "Hey, Sasuke I was reading about the Sharingan in a book found in the basement of the library. Is it true that the ability to see the future is a complete lie from the Uchicha?"

Sasuke glared at him "No. What was the title of the book?" He demanded.

Naruto thought of an answer of the top of his head "The annals of the Senju." He continued regardless "Funny, because it mentioned about a few other things being lies as well. Like some Fourth level mangenkey thingy…" Naruto shrugged his shoulders.

Sasuke was staring at the blonde, the white in his eyes being very apparent. His mouth was left open, and his fingers had gone slack around the stick he was holding. He was completely still.

It lasted for a brief second, before Sasuke collected himself "That is a lie."

Naruto had seen the look. That wasn't the look of someone who had discovered something completely new about their bloodline.

That was the look of someone who realized that they had nearly been stumbled about their deepest, darkest secret and wanted to cover it up the best way possible.

It would be real inconvenient if the sacrifice to the altar of ambition knew about it beforehand.

'Fuck you Sasuke' Naruto thought furiously 'If you think you are going to make me your sacrifice in order to fulfill your selfish ambition, you better think of a very good plan'.

A feral smile occurred on the inside of him.

'Because you might have just chewed a bit more than you thought. After all I've got some **very **motivated assistance'

_wertyuiowertyuiopwertyuiweruiopwertyuiop wertyuiowertyuiopwertyuiweruiopwertyuiop_

"**Testing 1, 2, 3. Dead Konoha-nin on a roast pit." **Came a deep voice from the inside of his head.

'You can talk to me?' Naruto somehow wasn't surprised. It figured that the Kyuubi would somehow worm a way to communicate with chakra package.

"**Yes. Now that I'm finished testing it, I'm going to go back to sleep." **

'Wait'

"**What? Finally caught on to the tidbit of information I gave you at the end." **

'Yeah' Naruto sneered 'Pretty obvious'.

"**Your previous mental faculties wouldn't have let you do even that." **

'Rub in how I was used huh? I need to ask some questions.'

"**Go ahead." **

'The Yondaime was related to me wasn't he?'

"**What gave you the clue? The startling near clone resemblance you sport?" **The Kyuubi snarked.

'Laugh it up. So second question I got to ask, how closely related were we?'

"**Do I look like I know your genealogy tree? To answer your question, your relationship is very close. You are either his son, or brother." **

'….how the hell would I be his brother? I mean our ages are twenty years apart.'

"**So? I have had children who are two-hundred years apart in ages, and they are still siblings."**

Naruto paused for a minute to think of the almighty Kyuubi as a father/mother/whatever it was. Then he thought about the kids.

He shivered. Some images were just not right to even think about.

'It's different for humans. Wait, if he's my dad…then that would mean he knowingly sacrificed his only child.' Naruto thought shocked.

"**It isn't that odd. If you consider the facts, this man actually sold his soul to eternal torment just to stop me from crushing this particular village. The man was quite obviously a zealot of the worst kind. Sacrificing you to prevent the destruction of the village must have been a cake walk after that." **The kyuubi said. It irritated and scared Naruto that he was talking about this like it was on the same level as buying flowers.

Naruto frowned 'How do you know what lies in the shinigami's stomach?'

"**I don't. I can only assume like the humans; compared to us all the gods stand supreme. I can tell you that the Shinigami is a sadistic bastard who makes me look like your pink-haired teammate" **The kyuubi snarled.

Naruto's mind blanked out as he thought about the Kyuubi's power and comparing it to Sakura. It didn't just compute. All he knew was that if the death god came calling he was going to come peacefully, and hope the shinigami didn't feel like playing with him.

'…so you mentioned a bloodline.' Naruto decided to get off the somber subject.

"**Your bloodline is of contractual origins. Obviously your clan either had a jinchuuriki as it's founder (extremely unlikely as I would have heard of it) or they made a contract with a strong cat spirit. One has to wonder what they gave to get a bloodline…" **The Kyuubi trailed off.

'What they gave?'

"**Every bloodline comes from a contract between spirits, demons or other beings besides human nature. Even summons can provide a contract if done right. Souls are the preferred gift. There is a reason bloodlines are given a bad name and it isn't just because of their use in warfare." **

'So who wrote the contract? What was the price?' Naruto muttered curious.

"**As far as I can see, not that I can read the contract very well, it was a contract between a Hakachi Hana and…you have to be shitting me." **The kyuubi shouted.

'What?' Naruto was nervous. Surprise tinged the Kyuubi's voice. That never happened before (admittenly before was one conversation but still).

"**Your patron is the whispering cat. Your ancestor had to be crazy to even think of making a contract with the crazy bitch." **Hearing the massive genocide-causing demon call someone crazy did not fill the blonde with good feelings about his patron.

"**The whispering cat spent years being a god's toy. She never was quite the same after she left his grasp, and her powers made her very difficult to put down. In fact, the contract specifies that the person must provide 200 souls as food to her." **So his ancestor had sacrificed people as well to their patron. What was in the past was in the past though; Naruto would be unable to do anything for those 200 souls.

"**She shows exceedingly bad taste. I would have asked for 500 at the very least."** Naruto had to stop himself from letting his mouth open and merely settled for mentally staring at his…clearly insane guest.

'What does the bloodline give me? Please don't tell me it's a doujutsu.' Naruto had come to associate doujutsu with snarky bastards.

"**It gives you a cat's traits. It's much like the Inuzuka, you get advanced senses and night vision. You understand feline species like they do dogs. There is only one difference in between the two, something about being able to let you use the hallways of non-existence for survival. She always was long-winded." **

'What could that be referring to?' naruto wondered.

"**I believe it's talking about some form of shifting dimensions. Such a powerful ability must have a drawback or be temporary. Possibly both." **The kyuubi muttered.

'Why must it be temporary?'

The kyuubi went into it's lecturing tone again **"To shift dimensions is monumentally tasking. It is one of the higher arcane arts in existence, and only a few beings know of jutsu like it. Among these are humans who shortcut the process by using summons, your dear father whose face was utterly hilarious when he realized I was always able to predict where he would go, and demon lords. The Uchicha would count but they sacrifice their souls for the process." **

'You have any idea how to activate it?'

"**No idea." **

'What?!'

"**While I admire your seeming belief that I know everything, I do not. I just know enough to crush any pesky mortal that isn't suicidal. I swear those are the worst…." **

'…Do you have any idea where I could get the information from?' Naruto wondered.

"**Since it's a bloodline, it's possible that all you need is focus and desire for that. Your genetics will take care of the rest. I would suggest using the Snake or Rabbit handseal for your testing. Those have the most connection to space dimensional jutsu." **

'Alright…forgetting that. I have something else to bring up; your familiar form.'

"**What about it?" **growled the Kyuubi. Obviously it was a sore subject for him.

'You can't appear as a fox; the paranoid idiots would instantly think that would mean association with you.' Naruto decided to ignore the fact that they would be right 'You could perhaps appear as a cat? Then everything could be explained by way of bloodline.'

"**Which will only make you more desired." **Commented Kyuubi dryly.

'That's a problem…why?'

"**Besides the fact that it would make them wish you were in chains even more. They are going to be wondering why you don't croak at the age of twenty; the blonde rat wasn't alone in this. For instance he didn't put the bloodline blocking seal; that was put later by an old man. All of this will just make your faked death bring a lot more publicity than it should. At this rate you'll need to somehow make yourself into ashes in front of viewers just to get them to declare your death without looking further." **

'Old man….was it oji-san? Did he know about the other seals?' Naruto dreaded to hear the answer to that particular question but it needed to be answered before progressing farther.

"**Yes, it was your oji-san." **The kyuubi struggled with his next answer. He dearly wanted to tell the brat that his grandfather knew about it and hated his guts. Unfortunately he had given his vow for the information to be honest **"As for knowing about the seals…I'm not sure. However he had someone check the seals for him before putting the bloodline seal. This man had shaggy white hair, and the most horrendous facial markings. So either the man found out and chose not to tell or they were both on it. Which do you think is more likely?" **So what if he was supposed to tell the truth; he was technically telling it just a little skewed.

'I….see. Final subject, any ninjutsu that you know that are possibly connected to the Kage Bunshin?'

TBC

Ok, about namikaze minato. Namikaze minato doesn't strike me as a bad guy….or at least not knowingly a bad guy. Of course this is a world where mercenary villages fight against one another for power, prestige and bijuu so the concept of good is relative here.

Anyway, Namikaze was completely dedicated to Konoha. If he wasn't he must have been pretty stupid because he supposedly sacrificed his soul for all eternity for the sake of it.

That level of dedication either screams Zealot, or Stupid.

I went for Zealot myself.

So having sacrificed his soul for all eternity what do you do when confronted with the notion that your son might end up becoming the monster (or something similar to it) that you just sealed? Especially considering that the village is not known for it's generosity in the light of it's 'mistakes' (cough Anko cough).

You make him loyal, and when the time comes send him on a express train to death dragging the kyuubi for all eternity.

Works pretty neatly.

Shame he didn't count on outside factors.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Nara Shikamaru and Uzumaki Naruto will you please come down." The referee (which Naruto had nicknamed death walking) announced.

Naruto cursed. Intelligence was a wonderful thing to have-when accompanied with capability.

Currently, Naruto had only one part of the equation. He was ill prepared to take on any genin besides Sakura, and Ino. Which hurt his ego more than he believed it would.

He slowly walked down the stairs, noting that Nara Shikamaru was doing the same.

'What do I know about Nara?' Naruto quickly thought 'They can use shadows to bind people; they have to have some sort of range problem.'

Naruto's stomach went from sinking to plummeting when he realized something; his main jutsu was literally called shadow clone. As in solid clones who reacted to light by casting shadows on the ground. Shikamaru wouldn't even have to stress himself; there would be a literal field of shadows to jump from shadow to shadow.

So obviously that was out.

What else did he have?

Naruto made a short count. He had a solid henge he could do, kawarami, and (an iffy) bunshin. Not for the first time, Naruto cursed Kakashi and himself. Kakashi because the man didn't teach squat and himself because he willingly waited for said man to actually teach him something like an idiot.

He desperately thought for some time, and managed to scrabble up an idea. Hopefully it would work.

Genma looked between the two combatants "Ready?" Both genin made short nods, with one saying troublesome and the other staying stubbornly silent.

The second the hand went down Shikamaru went into handseals, and started to extend his shadow. He knew that Naruto would just charge in like an id-

Naruto jumped back.

Shikamaru widened his eyes as a immense shuriken flew towards him simaltenously. He cut the jutsu short, and ducked saving his head.

Naruto knew that Shikamaru was a genius. The worst thing you could give a genius was time to actually plan something. You needed to keep the pressure on them, or it was going to bite you in the ass.

Naruto rapidly made shadow clones which jumped forward as he continued jumping back sending kunai to Shikamaru. Shikamaru in an unprecendeted show of acrobatic skill dodged them all neatly, trying desperately to get his hands in a seal formation.

Naruto grit his teeth; he wanted to get this over with fast. There had to be some way to cut this match even shorte-

His eyes flicked upwards.

Due to secrecy issues, and not wanting to show the embarrassing losses of the lucky ones the building didn't have any windows. This was to prevent escapes in case of diplomatic incidents, as well as removing potential for spying. Of course if they really wanted to spy they could just slip in other ways, but it was a demonstration of strength.

Naruto released two kunai upwards piercing the lights behind him. The lights gave in a twinkling display of glass and electricity, cutting out shortly. His shadow which had formerly been projecting forward, now projected backward; a fact that Shikamaru noted.

Shikamaru realized, while punching out a clone, that Naruto was actually using his head.

This was not good.

He grunted and threw out a shuriken towards the real Naruto. Naruto jumped backward, getting him within touching distance to the wall. The shuriken landed just north of the available light.

Naruto suddenly stopped moving.

He looked down to see that Shikamaru had used the shadow of the shuriken to extend his own shadow so he could bind him. He grunted and tried to move, when Shikamaru suddenly reached down into his shuriken holster. Naruto tried to resist reaching into his shuriken holster, but couldn't.

"Give up Naruto." Shikamaru hefted his kunai and prepared to throw.

"Shikamaru you're bluffing. You throw out that kunai, and you make me throw out my own." Naruto remarked.

"How troublesome. You're right of course." Shikamaru threw the kunai, making Naruto mirror the movement.

A millisecond later, Naruto saw what Shikamaru was doing. It was an elegant plan really; cause him to bash his head into the wall that he had willingly backed into. Shikamaru wouldn't be affected and he would win without problem.

Shikamaru saw when Naruto (of all people) figured it out. He expected him to panic, and start yelling.

Naruto _smirked_.

Shikamaru was left to wonder if Naruto was masochistic as he bent backward.

He sighed, hearing the sound of a head bashing against the wall at the opposite side. He looked at the referee waiting for him to declare victory and get this whole troublesome thing over with-

He heard two poofs. One he could only guess was from a clone. The other he could actually see.

The massive windmill shuriken that had nearly decapacated him had rested on the floor the whole time. The poof that came with it made a widely grinning Naruto visible. He could practically feel the comment before it came out.

"Gotcha."

'oh crap.'

"Nighty-night Shika."

Shikamaru's last thoughts before Naruto's fists made his head go all the way to the ground were how his mother and Ino was going to yell at him for losing.

Troublesome.

**Page break**

There was a slow silence at the stands. Asuma's cigarette dropped from his gaping mouth at the loss of his favorite genin. Kurenai was analyzing how the brat had won despite his disadvantage.

Kakashi was proud. The fact that he hadn't done a thing to cause that pride (besides getting caught in a water prison) didn't prevent from feeling pride.

Asuma closed his mouth "Your student is very impressive Kakashi. I can see you train them well."

"Why thank you." Kakashi said.

The other genin didn't take it so calmly. Chouji and Ino were staring that their strategist had been outsmarted of all things the deadlast. Shino raised his eyebrows at the tactic revealing emotion. Hinata was smiling softly, and Kiba was gaping as well.

Sasuke and Sakura where the hell the dumbass had managed to pull an idea like that out.

Naruto heard the continued silence and slowly walked up the stairs. He calmly sat down getting a guilty pleasure from the continued stares of the people around him. No one moved, while the foreign nin were wondering why everyone was acting weird.

Finally someone decided to say something.

"You got damn lucky!" Kiba yelled.

Naruto arched an eyebrow over his fellow nin "You're right I did get damn lucky."

"Don't think that you'll be lucky next tim-huh?" Kiba asked confused. Had Naruto, proud deadlast, just admitted that he got damn lucky instead of insisting it was his own skills?

"If Shikamaru hadn't thought I was still a stupid idiot, he would have probably been more careful. As it is he underestimated me." Naruto explained.

The explanation would have a two-fold purpose. It would make the people around him think he wasn't some sort of hot-shot genin to watch out for. Those were the ones that got killed and more importantly drew attention to themselves-a big no no for him. He still had a purpose to accomplish and loads of political enemies to handle within the village.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the unnecessary seals hadn't been a solo activity. There were too many variables to encounter; it would require careful monitoring to make sure that Naruto got to his unfortunate demise. He could only guess that another seal master was involved in this-and quite possibly the Yondaime's students if he had any.

Now if he only knew where they were….

Naruto didn't realize the irony of his thoughts when Kakashi came by.

"Naruto are you alright?" Kakashi asked in his typical bored manner.

"I'm fine." Naruto shortly answered "Why do you ask?" Naruto asked suspicious.

"Well, you are acting…less like yourself than usual." Kakashi commented, leafing through his book. Naruto could practically hear the unspoken word.

"_You're not acting like an idiot." _

In any other circumstances, Naruto would have been insulted. As it was, Kakashi had a point-he had been an idiot until now. He was now starting to grow from his idiotic beginnings into something more.

Which brought up the second reason why he had answered Kiba. Credibility. He was tired of being (cliché as it was) the dumb blonde of the group. They would most likely think he was an idiot anyway (first impressions were incredibly hard to remove) but he would be talking like himself from now on. Anyone that thought he was a dumb idiot who didn't have any skills was going to get killed for that assumption if they ever met in combat.

The trick would be to make himself more credible but not be so credible as to be considered kill-on-sight. It was, he realized shortly, going to be a pain in the ass to do so. The chunin exams were specifically designed to let genin show off their skills to future clients. It didn't take a genius to know that a lot of the decisions of who got to be a chunin were political.

He never realized that there was a certain blonde pig-tailed girl that was watching with a considering gaze and a tiny frown.

**Page Break**

Naruto winced as Hinata coughed up blood.

Naruto had developed something that he liked to call the arrogant bastard theory. Talented people seemed to notiorously wax into despair, and hatred. Said hatred, and despair pushed them further into training their talented selves. Frustration grew when their goals were kept out of reach or deigned impossible. Cue beginning of the cycle again.

Naruto could sympathize with the sort of people who hated the term talented and genius. Victory in combat was earned through a motley combination of skill, mental planning and energy. Luck also played an immense part in it as well. The talented believed that their talent allowed them to win at no cost.

What the talented never realized was quite simple-everyone had power. There was no ultimate power to be gained, and assured victory was nothing more than an idealistic dream. It was how you used it.

Naruto would be the first to admit he didn't have Sasuke's raw talent. What he did have (now anyway, not back then) was common sense, decent planning skills and a whole lot of chakra. Sasuke could trump about his 'invincible' sharingan all he wanted-Naruto would just pull a Zabuza on him and put a mist on him.

See any doujutsu bastard go through THAT.

Even as he admired, Hinata going through the obvious pain to attempt to defeat her (asshole) cousin he was thinking. He could already see the writing on the wall, Hinata was going to lose and quite possibly die unless someone jumped in. Kurenai's white knuckles seemed to show that she was going to be the one to do so.

Although Gai was a close contender.

He quickly reviewed through the previous fights. Ino had beaten Sakura with a clever use of hair and binding matrix (probably ripped off from Shikamaru…). Kiba had literally been deafened and nearly killed by the bell girl (Kin was her name he believed). Sasuke had been _conveniently _put on the first match, and defeated Yoroi by essentially modifying Lee's technique for his weaker body.

Lee didn't look like he was going to do anything about that particular detail. If he had been in Lee's place he would have torn the brat in two to show him what happened if someone copied his techniques.

Shino had shown why the Aburame were formidable- they essentially had miniature armies of insects inside them. Combined with his strategic mind and you had a walking nightmare to beat. He was perceptive as well-something that the armless boy was now learning in the hospital bed.

The puppeteer in all honesty freaked Naruto out. He recognized the ability of two against one- he had used much the same tactic (albeit with less cunning) himself. What scared him was that a puppet was a solid construct, and if a puppeteer got into his head to start experimenting with seals….

He was going to stay far away from catsuit boy-no matter how girlish he was. There was a reason Jinchururiki viewed seal masters as enemies.

He thought for a second and then decided to ask his inner demon for advice.

'The shadow clone technique passes memories along to the user after being dispelled, right?'

"**Correct." **

'That would mean further mental training is possible, along with chakra control. Physical training is out.'

"**You do have a brain. Before you ask- yes it would be possible to cram extreme training into extremely small periods of time."**

'That's wonderful-I need all the help I can get against my enemies. As it is I'm going to have to learn all the basics that the teachers _accidentally_ skipped.'

"**Your knowledge of chakra is woefully low-even for one of you humans. Fortunately you have myself to help you. Even a person such as you will be able to do great things with my knowledge." **

'Geez, arrogant much?'

Before the Kyuubi could further insult him, he started to make mental notes.

Kin would be easy to handle. Just don't let her attack first, and don't give her a chance to use her sound genjutsu. This was one case in which his sensitive ears were a disadvantage.

Ino would be easy to handle. The girl had a talent for deception, as noted by her cutting her hair to use as a binding matrix. The only thing Naruto worried about was whether she would use that possession jutsu on him. What kind of effect would that have on a jinchuuriki?

"**The possessor meets the bijuu inside." **Naruto jumped. It was only because Hinata was being pulled out by a stretcher that no one noticed it. The kyuubi continued **"After that it **_**gets**_** fun." **

Naruto shuddered from the sheer ecstasy in his voice. He decided that letting Ino do the move was a bad idea-both for himself and herself.

He already had plenty of enemies-he didn't need a whole clan out for his skin because the heir was misinformed and decided to do something stupid.

Sasuke would need plenty of mist, and long-range ninjutsu. The problem was that the sharingan gave him so many advantages over Naruto he was going to need the mist. Perhaps he could trick Sasuke into trying to do a jutsu that needed way too much chakra?

The problem with being a non-clan ninja was simple-material. Clan ninja regularly went home where there was dozens of scrolls with experience to chakra. The parents were normally ninja and thus had handy experience when it came to using chakra to pass down. On the other hand, to not be a ninja into a ninja clan meant you were at best an outsider or at worst a rejected member.

Clans tended to have blood feuds all over the place. Rejected members provided handy targets for their enemies.

Shino and Kankuro were going to be difficult. Naruto had a feeling that lots of fire was needed for both of them-that would certainly be useful. He also had a feeling that both ninja had nin that had already attempted to set them on flame and had protections against such an assault. So he was going to need a sort of Plan B…

His attention was drawn to the spectacle of Neji striding into the stands. Every leaf genin was sitting far away from the Hyuuga-killing your own family was **not** a good social indicator. Even his own teammates were sitting away from him.

Naturally, the Hyuuga didn't care.

"**Of course he doesn't care. It is in the slave's nature to kill the oppressor-even if the oppressor is the kindest of them all." **The Kyuubi said.

'….slave?'

"**The Hyuuga are divided into two families-branch and main. Each second child is placed into branch, and at the age of six a modified death seal is put on them."**

'They put death seals on their own family!' Naruto gasped. So his dad wasn't the only one who did that sort of thing…

"**You sound shocked. Supposedly the branch family is placed with the seal to protect their bloodline-they get caught on missions, or are captured it's a simple handseal and it's bye bye brain and eyes." **The Kyuubi snarked.

Naruto frowned 'That doesn't make sense.' Naruto pointed out.

"**Of course it doesn't-if they really wanted to protect the bloodline they would put the seal on everybody. I believe that the reason is simply because in the past they wanted a servant class who wouldn't betray their clan. Each branch Hyuuga knows that the people outside care even less about their status than the people inside. After all, why would Konoha let the Hyuuga continue the practice if they actually cared about it." **The Kyuubi analyzed **"In the end, Konoha is like any other hidden village-all they desire is power to complete their goals, and big names to send clients. So long as the Hyuuga serve them they will turn a blind eye to any…sordid activites they perform on themselves." **

Naruto found himself trying to make an excuse for Konoha…and found none. If the village had told the Hyuuga they couldn't do it then the Hyuuga would have packed up and gone to another hidden village. The Hyuuga were formidable and cold-nobody wanted to be their enemies.

'This village is built on the sacrifice of the individual for the masses.' Naruto realized as he looked at the people surrounding him 'it's so ingrained they don't even see _anything wrong_ about it'.

Naruto had just gotten his first glimpse of the true nature of Konoha.

**Author notes**

In reference to Elongation's question-yes Orochimaru will still be a bad guy. All because the Yondaime was a knight templar doesn't mean that Orochimaru will be a good guy. There is still plenty of room for all sorts of bad guys in the mercenary world of Naruto.

Naruto will also start seeming a little off when caring about people. The answer to this, every person besides the people in the ramen stand has been affiliated with the shinobi corps. This means that every person was identified with the loyalty seal, and so Naruto doesn't know what to think of them. He himself doesn't realize this and is coping.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Sorry Naruto but I can't train you." Kakashi said lazily.

Naruto would have liked to say he was surprised. Really he would have. He wasn't.

"Are you sure you can't train me?" Naruto asked pleadingly.

Kakashi shook his head.

"You're going to be training Sasuke during that time aren't you?" Naruto accused.

Kakashi sighed as if he was speaking to some immature brat "Now, Naruto don't be jealou-"

"I am not jealous. Rather I'm disappointed in you." Naruto commented.

Kakashi blinked. Naruto was a impulsive brat who couldn't grasp complex concepts if his life depended on it.

Heck, he didn't even know Naruto knew what the word disappointed meant.

Before he could do his rebuttal, Naruto continued "There is absolutely no reason you couldn't train both of us during that time. You know Kage Bunshin don't you? Let's be honest here: Sasuke isn't going to need that much attention, he's just going to be using his eyes to copy whatever jutsu you show him. So what is the _real_ reason you're just training him."

It didn't pass Kakashi's notice that all his fellow jounin were listening in.

"Naruto" He began kindly "Gaara is dangerous and Sasuke will need all the training he gets to win." Now if only Naruto could stop asking questions and just accept it-

Naruto snorted and a quiet sound bubbled from his lips. It took Kakashi a few seconds to realize that it was laughter that was escaping from his lips. Naruto found what Kakashi had just said funny.

"Win? Sasuke isn't going to win against Gaara. Gaara is going to tear him apart-bloodline or no bloodline. Gaara may not have a lick of physical training but he still has rather _supernatural_ powers wouldn't you agree. There is no way in hell that he can possibly defeat someone who has access to that much power and is unstable." Naruto laughed.

All of the other genins looked at him in either confusion (leaf) or Horror (sand and sound). The jounin on the other hand tensed at the statement. Everyone who was anyone (i.e all jounin) knew that Gaara was the latest attempt at a jinchuuriki weapon from sand.

The question was how did Naruto know that?

Kakashi calmed himself from saying something unfortunate in front of company. It wouldn't do good to start insulting his student in front of his comrades.

"Sasuke might surprise you Naruto. But I'm not going to train you. Sorry." Kakashi didn't sound at all apologetic.

Naruto grimaced at the refusal.

"Okay." He turned around to leave.

Kakashi was shocked at the simple acceptance and almost didn't get the next words out of his lips in time "_But_…" Kakashi started drawing the attention of Naruto "I did find someone to train you."

Naruto was actually pleasantly surprised "Who."

Then Ebisu (A.K.A closet pervert) showed up.

Naruto stared at the proud man for a long moment. Then he turned around and said with the flattest expression he could muster "You hate me don't you Kakashi?"

**Page Break**

Naruto actually found Ebisu to be a good teacher. The man might have disliked him for his harem stunt (not the best start of a relationship), but he didn't let that get in his way of teaching. The man was if nothing else professional.

It was just his method of teaching seemed…painful.

"Is there a reason why we are doing water walking in a _hot_ spring?" Naruto drawled looking at the (currently) empty bubbling water.

Ebisu stared at his blonde student for a while. He had expected the blonde to start yelling about how he was going to master water walking in no time at all. Instead he had this quiet, somewhat sarcastic boy who seemed to actually think before he opened his mouth.

Even so the plan was still working perfectly "It will give you extra motivation in mastering it."

Naruto gave a glare at his teacher, and took off his blonde shirt revealing a skinny body. Scowling he placed one toe on the hot water, and put chakra below it. Then the whole foot and it was still working.

Naruto smirked and placed both feet on the water, and walked two unsteady steps inwards. He turned around and presented himself with his hands, giving a little hop-

Splash.

A low chuckle could be heard from Ebisu as he watched his student get inundated into the boiling water.

Naruto _flew_ out of the boiling water and landed on the rocks with a painful scream "AGGH! THAT's hot."

"Geez, be quiet!"

Both of their attentions were turned to a giggling man who was looking through a fence with a convenient hole. Ebisu purpled while Naruto palmed his face.

'_Am I surrounded by perverts?!'_

"**Careful. That is the man who checked your seal. I recognize him from the…decimation I performed in Konoha. Don't be fooled by his behavior-He is a seal master." **Naruto tensed at the sinister voice's answer.

Ebisu on the other hand took a very different reaction "How dare you peep on this fine young woman!"

"I'm doing research." Jiraiya snidely said.

'_Pot meet Kettle. Kettle with white covering on it? Meet pot.'_ Naruto silently thought.

He was surprised when Ebisu actually went to attack the man.

He was utterly _flabbergasted_ when the man summoned a frog and proceeded to, for all purposes and intentions, make the frog lay the smackdown on Ebisu with his tongue. The man smirked and went back to peeping on the springs without further ado.

Naruto stared at where Ebisu's unconscious body was and sighed. Great, now he was going to find another teacher.

He sharply turned to the weird man "You know I need a new teacher now right?" Naruto rhetorically asked.

"How is that my problem?" Jiraiya answered back.

"Oh no it's not at the moment….however what might be a problem at the moment is if I were to open my mouth AND START YELLING TO DRAW ATTENTION TO THE PERVERT!" Naruto finished loudly.

Jiraiya froze and turned around as the hot springs went silent. The woman were listening for a disturbance, and Jiraiya was trying his best to be silent.

Then he remembered his smirking companion.

He whirled around and managed to clamp Naruto's mouth before the boy could yell more.

"What do you want?" Jiraiya plaintively begged. He just had a nice viewing spot going and he _did not_ want to find another.

They got increasingly harder to find when Kunoichi became involved. The traps were killers, and he didn't think his nuts were going to survive another set of ASCTM (Anko Series of Cruel Traps for Men)©.

"I want you to teach me some tricks with chakra." Naruto whispered back.

Jiraiya shook his head "No."

Naruto briefly thought about yelling again but decided not to. He had a feeling that the man subscribed to the school of 'figure it out by yourself' already. The last thing he needed to do was make the man actively dislike him.

He sighed and put his hands into a seal. He exploded into smoke, and Jiraiya blinked. He drooled when the smoke went away, and Naruto came out.

Or rather Naruko stepped out.

Naruko arched herself backwards showing her barely covered chest (with a push up bra!) to the man. Half-closed eyes glimmered seductively at him, and her fingers tantalizingly touched her chest. Plump lips opened headily while she shook.

"Would you please train me…Gama-Sama?" She asked. Her sexy voice was enough to make Jiraiya nosebleed.

"YES!!!" Jiraiya cried in exhultation.

"Okay!" Naruko happily asked and with another puff of smoke had clothing on. Not much but still some.

"But you have to stay in that form." Naruko frowned. He really didn't mind being eye candy all the time (so long as they didn't try something stupid to her) but still he had his pride to consider.

After a moment he decided that what he could learn from this man superseded his pride. He couldn't be proud if he was dead.

"Deal."

"ALRIGHT!" Jiraiya finally had a person who could actually model for his books whenever he wanted to! And they wouldn't beat him up either! It was a dream come true!

Unfortunately he forgot that he had been standing right next to an onsen.

He was reminded of this punctually when Killing intent burst out and enveloped him.

Shivering he turned around and saw the woman cracking their knuckles "Ladies, there is a suitable explanation for this…"

His screams of pain made Naruko smile.

**Page Break**

Naruko wasn't smiling an hour later.

Rather she was frowning as she thought furiously, while standing on the water with Jiraiya doing his 'research' on her. The fact that her clothes were wet, and she didn't have a bra or panties on had nothing to do with this of course.

Really.

'Kyuubi why do I feel like I've been tricked?'

"**Because you have, you lummox. Quit using my shapeshifting abilities for pornography!"** The Kyuubi was not happy about Naruto's use of one of his demonic gifts.

'It seems too convenient' Naruto continued thinking.

"**It is. There are ten public hot springs in Konoha right?" **The Kyuubi asked him. Now to see if the boy had actually grown smarter…

'Ebisu took me to a hot spring for Water walking. I think cold water would be easier to find, and better for it. So either he intended for me to suffer and learn the hard way or…'

"**Right. Out of the ten hot springs (which you shouldn't have gone to in the first place) the one you are in just happens to have the toad sage. Which might I add hasn't been in the area for a total of eleven years. Now he just happens to **_**conveniently**_** appear? I don't think so." **The Kyuubi stated.

Naruto frowned 'How can you tell that he wasn't in the area.' He asked suspicious.

"**Summoning contracts resonate in the supernatural plane. It is easy enough for even such a bound beast as myself to be able to detect them. It is a form of supernatural marking; in other words a 'he is under my protection' sign to supernatural beings everywhere." **

Naruto was delighted at the news. He had a person who could essentially tell him when someone could pull out kaiju-like monstrosities. That was very good news-now onto the trick…

'They tricked me into going under his teachings. Why? To get a better grip on me? Or simply to prepare me against people who would kill me so I can be their weapon until execution time?' Naruto thought furiously.

"**Keep your friends close and enemies closer. Maybe they just want you to be at arm's reach in case your seal distorts itself. After all, who would you go to but your trusted sensei who also happens to be a seal master?" **The Kyuubi remarked.

'True.' Naruto pessimistically thought 'The man probably won't teach me anything to do with seals except the basics no matter how I plead-can't have your jinchuuriki messing with the seals that control him. It would also keep me from going to the Sandaime-who might be in on it anyway.'

"**But we can flip the coin on him, can't we?"** The Kyuubi was delighted at his container's thought process. When-not if- it broke out of here he might keep the boy as his slave. There were so many uses for a human slave…

Naruko grinned ferally and if Jiraiya would have seen it alarm bells would have been hitting off in his head.

Fortunately he was concentrating on writing about a sexy blonde girl in an orgy, and didn't have the time to look at the subject in question.

'Oh hell yes. I won't even have to lie-Jiraiya-sensei I didn't mess with the seal at all. It just happened to be your old buddy-Orochimaru. Remember him? Twisted transvestite from hell with a fetish for snakes. Why are you looking at me that way Sensei?' Naruto mentally cackled.

The Kyuubi wondered if he was influencing Naruto too much, and then shrugged.

"**Anyway, how are your Kage bunshin doing?" **

Naruto had seeded the area with Kage bunshin. There were two groups-those who were practicing the chakra control exercise Jiraiya had set out and those who were…appropriating information from within shinobi archives. Not all of them were from the academy either.

'They are doing very well. Especially the ones training on top of water-think I should pop them and watch Jiraiya's face when I can dance on water?'

The Kyuubi nastily grinned **"Do it."**

With a single flex of chakra all the Kage bunshin disappeared. Tons of information pounded inside his head, and he nearly staggered to his knees. He focused on how to water walk and found himself doing it with ease.

He turned around in time to see the gob-smacked face of his teacher.

"So sensei, you got anything else to teach me?"

**Page Break**

"You want me to sign…what?"

"It's a great honor to sign a summoning contract. Only me and my student have signed it."

Naruto stared at the summoning contract "I don't suppose you have other summoning contracts with you."

Jiraiya's face went slack "WHAT?! Toads are the best summons out there. You won't find a better contract out there."

Naruto rolled his eyes at the blatant advertising "Look I'm already seen as a virtual clone of the Yondaime." Jiraiya tensed at that "I don't need to use a toad to remind them that I'm his legacy."

"Summoning contracts aren't up for stealing-it's this one or you don't get the ability to summon." Jiraiya reminded him.

Naruto was in a pickle. He had a feeling the Toads would complain ostensibly about attacking Konoha, or for that matter even being summoned by a missing-nin. All of which there was a very real possibility of him being by the end of his 'quest'. He also had a feeling that he was going to have problems with them anyway.

On the other hand the ability to summon was useful. How many people could say that yes, I can summon a fifty-foot toad on your house punk.-go ahead shiver in fear. Eventually he came to a decision.

"Sorry, but no."

Jiraiya shook his head "You don't know what you're rejecting kid. Anyway next we are going to tap into the Kyuubi's power."

Naruto actually grew interested in it. He knew that he could already tap on request-not demand- the chakra. This would just be a perfect chance to experiment while using the Kyuubi's chakra.

Best part? He was going to be doing it under official eyes so the Konoha ANBU couldn't attack him while he was doing this.

"Ok, so what about we walk over here…" Jiraiya said walking to the brush, and through the area.

Naruto stared at the man "Sensei, that's a cliff we're heading towards to."

Jiraiya began sweating "Er, yes."

"You know it would be a really bad idea to throw the jinchuuriki off the cliff. I mean what's going to happen to the poor unfortunate person when the jinchuuriki pops out of the valley filled with red chakra. I certainly wouldn't want to be said unfortunate person. Don't you agree Jiraiya?" Naruto deliberately kept his tone light.

Jiraiya sweated and stuttered "Uh...yeah I agree. You know we could stop right here and just try to take the Kyuubi's chakra out by other means."

"Excellent idea Sensei. You're a genius."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The boulder had stood pristine for the longest time. It's craggy rocks surface marking the ages of time in a sort of sage-like way. It stood proud and tall as a monument.

At the second week of the month, that boulder met a kyuubi-enhanced Naruto. The boulder didn't survive.

Naruto grunted as his fist went through the stone like it was paper. The power of kyuubi curled around his muscles like a high-octane drug of the purest variety. Rage thrummed through his veins, telling him to kill-

That was the greatest problem with using the Kyuubi's power-the rage. It awoke something primordial in Naruto, a simpler mindset that was set to kill and survive. In that state, Naruto literally wouldn't stop until his body gave out or the enemy was dead. The presumption that he wouldn't die was simply put-his regeneration in a normal state was enough to save him from anything that didn't hit him in the heart or the head.

His regeneration in a kyuubified state?

You either had to cut off his head, or disintegrate his body. Nothing else was going to work.

Naruto dimly remembered his first attempt to control the Kyuubi's power. He had been nothing but a feral savage beast for twenty minutes before forcibly calming down. By way of Jiraiya's fists and (attempted) seals. It had been a wake-up call as to how powerful the older man was.

He had gotten better since then. Now he could control the energy infusion for up to twenty minutes before he went berserk. In his state of having both cognizance and tons of power he was far more dangerous than he was simply going berserk.

Jiraiya had found that out unpleasantly. Instead of the 1 minute it had taken him to take down Berserker Naruto, It took him 5 minutes to take down the thinking Naruto.

'So let's review. Your chakra gives me gargantuan physical amplification which is essentially what normal chakra except on a far bigger scale than normal chakra. It also gives me more potent chakra for the moment which I **still** have to _test_ out. The kage bunshin isn't just cutting it for me.'

"Hey sensei when are you going to teach me a long-range jutsu?" Naruko hollered. Jiraiya shook from whatever (disturbing) fantasies he was having involving the current female body she was wearing.

"Just get to thirty minutes without losing your mind. Sheesh, I've already told you." Jiraiya groused.

Naruko scowled. He shouldn't have to use a demon's chakra for thirty minutes just to get one single long-range jutsu. All the other ninja didn't have to do that now did they (admittedly she was special but still…). She had a feeling that Jiraiya saw Naruto as more of a container than a shinobi.

She sighed before having to go for her information source 'Kyuubi you got anything for long-range use.'

"**I can tell you the handseals for that fire jutsu your teammate does. That would alleviate any suspicion from your dear teacher as well as massively piss off the Uchicha. You can simply say that you saw him do it-technically true." **The Kyuubi mentioned.

'Please pass them to me.' It never hurt being nice to the megalomaniac demon lord. Especially while he was giving her handseals for a jutsu.

"**They are…."**

The attention of Jiraiya was aroused, pardon the pun, from his daydream fantasies to the handseals that his apprentice were making. He thought he recognized a couple before Naruto sucked in air and-

The very air became hot and dry as an immense fireball erupted from Narutos lips. The sheer flash of light made Jiraiya rapidly blink. Fortunately the Fireball had been pointed towards the cliff, and the craggy abyss beneath it making any damage non-lethal to the ANBU sentries around Naruto.

Still a point had to be made.

"IDIOT what were you thinking?" Jiraiya yelled. He knew the loyalty seal was supposed to make the subject stupid but-

"I was testing a Goukakyuu while I was in this state." Naruto answered calmly-quite a feat since her natural reaction had been to tear off her assailant's head. Kyuubi's rage inducing power was really something that was difficult to handle. Naruto didn't want to even think of what it would do once he actually reached one tail- she was having problems controlling herself with half of one.

"You didn't know how the Kyuubi's energy would react to doing a jutsu. You could have hurt the people around you." Jiraiya angrily retorted.

'I'm sure that would be such a loss.' Naruto sarcastically thought at her manipul-er teacher.

Verbally she responded back "Precisely why I did it now and here. We wouldn't have to test out what happens while in the battlefield or even worse in the chunin exam." Naruko privately thought it wouldn't be such a bad idea for Neji to be burnt to crisp but she suspected that Jiraiya wouldn't exactly fall for that line.

"But what about me?!" Jiraiya pointed at himself doing a little angry dance.

"I am quite confident in your superior skills sensei. I was sure you could handle it even if I shot it straight at you." Jiraiya found himself wondering whether to be complimented or insulted and decided to go for a halfway scowl/smile.

It was quite humorous and Naruko found herself giggling before stopping herself. HE didn't giggle, all because he was shapeshifted into a girl didn't mean that he was actually a girl!

"**So you've met one of the perils of shapeshifting-the mental effect." **The kyuubi commented.

'WHAT!'

"**My shapeshifting is nothing else but complete-only my chakra presence would give people clues as to what you really are. It shifts mind and body." **The kyuubi said proudly.

'That's great and all…BUT WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS IF I GET STUCK IN A SHAPESHIFT TOO LONG!' Naruto mentally yelled at the furball in his head.

Kyuubi snarled at the disrespect **"Quiet down Monkey! You will not get stuck at a shift because your mental presence is always there-it will just get twisted the more in the shapeshift you are." **

Naruto calmed down 'Oh. I supposed that among those who can see chakra the shapeshifting ability is useless.'

"**Hardly. The sharingan wouldn't recognize it-their perception of chakra isn't clear enough. The hyuuga on the other hand…"**

'Can. Just fucking great-the clan that enslaves it's members is the one that can see what I really am.'

"**Only if they have the Byakugan on. The Byakugan is a chakra-heavy doujutsu; it has to be with the range of its ability. So they can't have it on constantly. By the way…you should know that the Hyuuga clan was previously taught to exterminate any Jinchuuriki they came across." **The kyuubi finished.

'Really? How many clans out there have to do with Jinchuuriki?' Naruto grumbled 'I can understand the Senju and the Uchicha but the Hyuuga? They don't have any abilities specifically intended for subduing Jinchuuriki.'

"**The Hyuuga style depends on the chakra system of the opponent being the standard human model-something that jinchuuriki is notorious for not being. Jinchuuriki's chakra system are hardier-they have to be with the demonic chakra going through the body. Where humans take hours to recover a jinchuuriki will take a minute-if the bijuu inside doesn't interfere. Needless to say that the Hyuuga considered the 'abominations' serious threats." **

'Huh, I thought they had been devastated by a Jinchuuriki themselves. Go figure.'

"**That too." **

'…'

**PAGE BREAK**

Jiraiya had left for the day-not without a strict reminder not to mess with the Kyuubi's chakra while he wasn't in the vicinity.

Naruto wasn't going to mess with the Kyuubi's chakra.

Naruto was going to mess with the gifts that had been given to him by the Kyuubi's chakra.

He frowned as he turned back to male form and started shifting different skin colors "So I've got shapeshifting-a useful ability on any occasion. What else do I have?"

Demonic chakra escaped from Naruto's body forming the body of a small two-tailed cat. Kyuubi had cited that the common cat as being too small in stature to handle his 'awe-inspiring power'.

Immune by constant exposure to said power, Naruto had rolled his eyes at the sheer bravado.

"**As you have noticed, your senses are enhanced. Just sight, smell and hearing-not touch, balance, and taste. Balance was already handled by your feline bloodline so I saw no reason to improve it." **

"Really?" Naruto asked.

"**Do you seriously think you could have done those back flips when you were fighting with shadow boy as your old self?"** Kyuubi said amused.

"…"

"**As you have noticed your regeneration has grown past it's old limits. Poison, toxin and disease will never affect you again-that also means those ridiculous human concoctions you call 'medicine' will not work on you either. Your aging had slowed down to a tremendous extent-you are not immortal but close." **Kyuubi announced apparently proud of his work.

"Great so I'm a long-living person-I'm going to have the people who want immortality after me like flies after they realize I don't age." Naruto cursed.

"**Price that comes with long life kid, don't complain. You get massive stores of chakra-the chakra signature that is closest to you is your sensei and the perverted toad. The old man runs a close fourth." **The kyuubi listed

"Is that all?" Naruto mentioned.

"**What isn't that enough for you greedy human?" **The kyuubi snarled.

"No I just thought the bijuu were elemental creatures-just look at Gaara for example." Naruto pointed out.

The kyuubi chuckled **"Remember when I told you I turned my chakra into a neutral model. That means that I don't have any specific elemental powers- a decision I've never come to regret. While the others were taken down by their elemental weaknesses I was immune to it. 'Weaken yourself' the Gobi mocked. Well who's laughing now idiot dog!" **

Naruto sweat dropped as the tiny two-tailed cat cackled.

"…right. About my bloodline…"

They had experimented on the first week, and had found out that the Rabbit seal was the one that triggered the mutation. The bloodline had apparently done nothing obvious until Kyuubi had tried to sense his chakra from the outside. Then they had discovered what it had done.

His bloodline quite literally made it so that his chakra couldn't be seen or sensed. The ultimate stealth bloodline in getting past Hyuuga-something that made Naruto wonder about how lucky he was. It was only after Kyuubi pointed out the fault that Naruto saw the problem.

The ability to do ninjutsu and genjutsu separated Ninja from Samurai. When Naruto activated his 'stealth mode' he found that his bloodline's nothingness field was shattered if he did a ninjutsu or genjutsu. He also could only keep up his bloodline for ten minutes making it for long-term missions impossible. Granted most forms of ninja battle were over in minutes if not seconds but still it would have been nice for it to be longer.

He found out that he could get away with doing small chakra exercises while in the field. Things like tree walking and water walking were alright, and strengthening your body didn't involve any outward manifestation of chakra. Any more than that and it broke apart.

"**It is a great bloodline for a shinobi to have-the ability to sneak into your opponents headquarters and slit their throats is not something you should mock."** The kyuubi told him solemnly. 

Naruto grimaced "I know that but I would have liked something a little more destructive."

"**Destruction is well and good-if you're looking short-term." **The kyuubi began to lecture.

Naruto began to listen. The kyuubi was a beast of destruction but he was a smart beast of destruction. He had destroyed empires and reaped souls by the millions through power and intelligence. What was more interesting was the thought process that enabled him to be successful.

Kyuubi was obsessive about details.

Every time he got into a battle and survived, lost or won he would go over the details of the fight to see what had gone wrong and how he could fix it. In that thought process, he was remarkably like the so-called 'perfect' shinobi-if something didn't work you didn't use it against your opponent. If it did you modified it so to work against others.

There was a reason even his fellow bijuu considered him an 'monster among monsters'-the sheer calculating nature of the beast was enough to make anyone wary. Couple that with the insane amounts of power he had and you had a mercurial mixture. Especially if you pissed it off, which took a truly herculean amount of effort. Kyuubi more often had disdain for his opponents not true hatred.

The last person who had done so had to literally give up his soul to the death god to achieve that particular feat.

Naruto had begun to pick up on that thought process. He already had plans on how defeat all his possible opponent's techniques and strategies. He even had a little notebook (NOT to be compared with Lee's) that had the methods to beat his so-called 'friends' down.

He kept the notebook very close to his heart-literally and metaphorically. The last thing he needed was one of his teammates reading it and finding out that they were plans of how to kill them in there.

That would completely ruin his week.

"**Long term it is better to use guile and treachery to destroy. You can destroy the structures and buildings of humans but they will always be able to rebuild so long as they have the will to do so. What you need to do is crush the will of a place to keep it from reforming." **

"You sound like you've done it before."

"**Do you know what the name of this country was before it was called the Land of Fire?"** The kyuubi murmured.

Seeing Naruto's confused look **"It was called the land of wood and it was divided into several fiefdoms with clans around. The senju had the closest association with the daimyo family right next to the Akimichi." **

"**A rebel group that was violently opposed to the current daimyo regime arose. They also happened to be"** Kyuubi's catlike face pulled off a truly fearsome chechire cat grin **"coincidently opposed to the Senju. Their leader's assistant was called Gizensha; odd wouldn't you say?"**

Naruto nodded respecting Kyuubi's cunning even more. To bring down a country and at the same time eliminate several members of the clan that harassed you daily was truly a great accomplishment. Especially while you were being disguised as a human, and using a rebel group to do your work.

"Let me guess the Senju clan was cut down during the rebellion?"

"**By half; most amusing was when I got the Senju and Uchicha into a feud that lasts until today." **

"That was you?" Naruto was surprised. He had found out about the feud between the two clans when he had managed to find a journal of a senju family member. The third really needed to watch his books more-the forbidden scroll incident had been bad enough. The information within the journal contrasted very deeply with the information that was given in the 'official' text books.

The official text books had several of the clans joining peacefully in a banner for the safety of the inhabitants. In reality several clans were forced to join Konoha, and the only reason the Hyuuga and Uchicha joined were because they realized the power of the union. Until then Iwa and Cloud had been picking clans apart and studying them. Konoha had immediately had the clans under the protection and set out to show what they could do.

It was no coincidence that Iwa and Konoha had gone to war in the third secret war-they already hated each other's guts since the first secret war.

Actually every hidden village had its own set of grudges and reputations. Even the minor villages wouldn't hesitate to take a chance to stab them in the back.

"**I have a technique that will work with your bloodline and not disrupt it." **The kyuubi mentioned blithely.

Naruto started to look excited "What is it?"

"**An earth jutsu I picked up. It only affects your body though, and involves no external projection. Perfect for a close-combat type such as yourself that can regenerate." **

Despite his love at learning new jutsu, Naruto shivered "What is it?"

The kyuubi grinned **"Doton: Domu." **

**Page Break**

Kyuubi seemed to delight in giving him jutsu that he couldn't practice with kage bunshin. Admittedly, the first jutsu that Kyuubi had given him were based on Kage bunshin- Shuriken Kage bunshin technique, and (he loved this one) Bunshin Bakuha. So far he had only mastered one and the other…

Well there was a reason training area 9 was a large crater at the moment.

Doton: Domu was a whole another ball-game. For some reason skills such as kage-bunshin and shape manipulation came to him easier than elemental manipulation. It probably had something to do with the fact he had the singular bijuu who didn't have a single elemental power to its name.

Doton: Domu essentially called for you to infuse earth chakra into your body. It was a body hardening jutsu of the greatest caliber, and a surprising one that took large amounts of chakra and a decent amount of manipulation. Naruto could see the thought process of Kyuubi-regenerating boy has invulnerable body.

Invulnerable regenerating boy _a lot_ more likely to survive.

Stupid boy survive, Kyuubi survive.

Kyuubi happy.

Naruto groaned as his chakra gave a warble and his skin returned to its former light hue. With a grimace he put his hands back to the snake seal and his skin darkened again. He stepped into the hospital and a shape-shift later, a black-haired woman with dark skin walked through the hospital rooms casually. No one gave her a second glance.

That was one of the great secrets of getting into places-act like you are supposed to be there. To Naruto who had busted into more secure Konoha buildings than most Iwa spies by the time he was ten this was second nature. It would have taken Ibiki himself to notice any discomfort in him-although the snake lady was a close second.

He checked into the room, and after a wait of a second went in.

He smiled at the patient who looked at him (technically her but who was counting the details?) with a sort of shocked stupor. White eyes looked at him curiously while hooked up IVS fed her sustenance.

"Hyuuga Hinata, I have an offer for you."

**Author notes**

A question that popped up from one of the reviewers was whether Naruto identified with the rest of the people because they had loyalty seals on them. This is not true; Naruto identified them because they were all Konoha shinobi. The loyalty seal makes the person loyal to Konoha-and what is more of konoha than the shinobi?

As for Naruto's bloodline…I wanted to make something new that wasn't a doujutsu. I actually got the idea from the melt bloodline (can't remember which fanfic I read it from) which had its premise of also not capable of being sensed. I also wanted to put in a set of flaws so as to not make Naruto a god-sue; feel free to tell me if I'm going to the mary sue side.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Naruto hummed in his female disguise as he escaped from the hospital. So far his plans had gone smoothly-admittedly his plans were only in the first phase. He hummed, feeling like he was on top of the world while jumping from tree to tree.

Apparently, the universe in general took a dislike at Naruto's happy mood. Except for lady luck-for some reason she liked him. Just look at the amount of money he had managed to earn from casinos the last two weeks…

"**Kid we're being followed." **

Naruto cursed and began moving to the outside of Konoha 'Who? How many?'

"**Just one. I believe I have sensed her before, and she has a pretty decent chakra reserve for a human. She is definitely not one of the genin." **

Naruto frowned and started counting the amount of female shinobi he had met that weren't genin. There was the crazy snake lady, the weird bandage lady, and…that was it. Geez he needed to get out more.

Naruto paused in his movements as something didn't feel right.

"**Idiot! You've been caught in an illusion. I'm releasing you at the moment-keep pretending that you're under it." **

Instantly an undulation of something passed over his eyes, and he blinked rapidly. He did a casual look around the clearing he had landed in and managed to spot the woman. There were some definite benefits to having a bijuu inside you to take care of illusions.

Yuuhi Kurenai-he remembered from the stands-kept creeping towards him. Using chakra to pad her movements in case of hearing. The woman was smart, and already had a kunai ready to launch in case things went south.

Like they were about to right at the moment.

"Is that any way to treat the person who's trying to help your dear student?" Naruto lightly remarked, slightly surprised at the way the deeper female voice erupted from his still female form.

Yuuhi Kurenai let fly, and already had her hands in a seal by the time the Kunai hit him.

It didn't scratch him or even injure him in any way-it bounced off his currently dark form. Kurenai paused in her handseals in shock at seeing her kunai bounce off a person and Naruto decided to use the opportunity.

"Hey, I'm sure we can talk this out. I'm not even aggravated at the fact that you've just tried to kill me." Naruto kept his tone light hoping to be seen as peaceful.

"We could….or I could just call ANBU and have you arrested. That would get me information just fine." Kurenai smirked and raised a seal to let off a flash.

The next comment froze her in her steps.

"It also incidentally wouldn't help your student at all from her current predicament of family. Unless ANBU specializes in protection from emotionally abusive family members of powerful clans?" Naruto smirked as the woman stopped releasing chakra in the seal, and simply glared at him.

"…Fine. What do you want Bitch?" Naruto blinked at the insult meant for females before he remembered he was currently female. Shapeshifting messed with gender identity big time.

"I merely want to get something-something that your student can deliver for me. I don't even work for an opposing side-I only have my own best interests at heart-interests that will suffer greatly if Hinata-chan were to be derailed from it." Naruto tantalizingly said.

"So you're using Hinata?" Kurenai tensed ready to see if the woman's eye was invulnerable.

Naruto sighed and shook her/his head "Everyone gets used at some time or the other-except if you're planning. In which case you're the user. My simple interest is causing as much chaos for the Hyuuga clan-managing to get the current so-called useless heir free and without a bird seal legally would do that quite nicely."

"I don't believe you." Kurenai inched forward. Naruto's eyes snapped towards hers and she paused.

"You don't have to. What you have to know is this-do you want Hinata-chan to end up as a branch slave for her family for the rest of her life. Do I want to see her constantly get destroyed while the Hokage hums his little idealistic song up in the-" Naruto was interrupted from his mocking monologue by a blast of killing intent.

"_Shut up." _Kurenai was fighting between two patterns of thought in her head. One was the consummate Kunoichi ready and willing to do anything for her Village. The chaos in Hyuuga would undoubtedly spill into the main village proper-or would it? The Hyuuga were pretty isolated…

The other was the mother. She had always considered her career above any maternal needs. To her Hinata was her child for all intents and purposes-seeing her get constantly emotionally abused hurt her badly. Knowing that she could do nothing to help her situation at all kept her awake every night.

"Ask Hinata-chan about the plan. She will tell you what she is supposed to do-and what she wants you to do. I'm sure if you truly care for her you will do as she asks…" So Naruto was laying it on a bit thick-so what. He slowly pulled his hands behind his back and began moving his finger in a particular way.

"You talk like I'm going to let you get aw-" She ended up talking to a whirlwind of leaves.

"Crap." She sped off to follow the chakra trail of the shunshin.

Naruto hit the ground running-and shapeshifting. The instant he had gotten out of shunshin, he had shapeshifted back to his old self and then shape shifted to the form of a small girl. Immediately she sat on a (convenient) bench and waited.

He wasn't disappointed when Kurenai herself appeared a second later in a combat pose.

All she saw was a cute little girl on a bench peering at her while holding on to a teddy bear.

Kurenai smiled her best maternal smile (which Naruto noted was pretty damn good) and asked "Have you seen a woman pass by here?"

Little Naruto thought for a second "The nice lady who gave me teddy?" She asked in a cutesy voice befitting for a five year old.

Kurenai paused mid-nod "Gave…you…teddy?"

The cute little girl nodded and showed the teddy bear-along with the exploding tag on it belly.

Kurenai's eyes widened and she jerked the stuffed animal from her grip and threw it out into the wood. Halfway through the distance, the teddy bear exploded sending bits of charred fluff scattered everywhere. Kurenai turned her back toward the bear and shielded the girl at the same time.

**Page Break**

"Well that went well." Naruto dryly commented.

After Kurenai had 'saved' her from an explosion, she'd been taken to the hospital. Naruto had not minded being taken to the hospital for several reasons. Most prominent among them was the fact that he needed to know if something odd would pop up in medical examination –specifically something that could reveal his true identity.

The medical examination had gone off perfectly. Naruto suspected that if they had bothered to examine her (his dammit!) chakra in depth they would have noticed a discrepancy. Fortunately they hadn't.

Second reason was because it would be extremely suspicious for a five-year old to walk off on their own after such a (for a civilian) traumatizing experience. As it was Kurenai had been visually surprised when she hadn't burst out crying.

Naruto had never been good at bursting out in tears. Fake ones anyway.

Naruto denied any existence of the third reason; that he had enjoyed the motherly attention fixated on him by Kurenai. He had existed without a mother for 13 years and now wasn't the time to get soft. He had plans to make, and a hidden village to escape.

He made sure that no one was following him and shape-shifted into his normal form.

He had training to do and little time for else.

He hefted his jacket away and began to make hand seals. Moments later a sword appeared from thin air into his hands.

Tejina (literally meaning conjuring trick) was a technique that Naruto had recently made. It was a combination of Kage Henge and Kage Bunshin-all mixed up into one move. So long as it was within decent size limits of himself he could create it-swords, kunai and even a teddy bear.

He grunted and with a flick of concentration made Kage Bunshin appear around him. They nodded and began their respective tasks of forming chakra control.

To Naruto, chakra control was like fighting an uphill battle-while wearing Lee's weights. His massive stores of chakra made it difficult for him to get the level of control that would actually be useful. He still overpowered his jutsu by a great margin but ever since he had begun his control regimen he had been improving slowly.

He did hand seals again and ten swords, business ends pointed outward, appeared. Before the swords could fall down to the ground, he had completed another set of handseals.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa!" The swords went shooting through the air to end hilt-deep in the trees-which were on the opposite side of the clearing.

Naruto blinked.

He immediately began to think about how he was going to combine that with Tejina. The possibilities made him shiver.

**Page Break**

Hyuuga Hinata walked into her father's office. It was late night, and she could see that her father and his branch assistant were working tirelessly at their paperwork.

Her father naturally kept the frosty composure that every Hyuuga was supposed to have. Hinata had previously considered it with envy but now she just pitied him. He was slowly destroying himself with his emotional suppression, setting himself up for a big crash. It wasn't just him it was the whole clan-she could see the way the cards were being set up into a house. One that just needed one great wind to knock down…

A great wind that she would deliver herself one way or another.

Those who 'knew' Hyuuga Hinata were relatively few. Her team, and sensei were among the number-to include any more would be wishful thinking. They 'knew' her to be kind and gentle, unwilling to inflict punishment upon even her enemies. She didn't have the sort of cruelty and ruthlessness to be a bloodline heir, to be able to stare at a baby heir of a rival bloodline clan and pragmatically bring down the knife on it.

Hyuuga Hinata was about to prove those who 'knew' her wrong. With a mustered effort she went deep and drew on her extremely small reservoir of ruthlessness. It took all her effort not to shift her posture to reflect it and continued being her timid self as she shuffled down the desk.

With a casual ease she delivered a paper to the branch assistant. The branch assistant looked up, white eyes showing red veins in them. The branch member was clearly overworked and his lack of posture reflected it. He took the paper, glanced at it and put the stamp on it with little adieu.

The paper was returned, and the assistant continued on.

Hinata continued her nervous shuffle to an anonymous room, and nodded at her visitor.

"Jochuu-sama we have much to talk about." She said to the branch head.

**Authors notes**

**I have been having a major case of writer's block for some time and i was hoping this would shatter it. Please note that this is my first story written, and I am learning as I go. **


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Naruto whistled candidly as he observed the Hyuuga on the opposite side.

"Because fate says blah, blah, blah…." Neji continued to monologue.

Naruto smiled at him, and continued whistling. He could tell that his nonchalance was pissing off the Hyuuga in a major way. He hadn't known that Neji had a thing for dramatics before-that was very interesting.

Not that it mattered seeing as Neji wasn't going to leave the place alive.

"Are you going to keep on with your monologue?" Naruto drawled convincingly "Look here's a tip: tape your whole fate speech in a recorder, so not only are you beating your opponent physically but you're beating them with boredom as well."

Neji's face became an interesting shade of red. He growled and stepped into a stance "I will make your death as painful as possible loser."

Naruto yawned "Bring it on _lady_."

Neji snapped.

With a manly scream, he lunged forward. Chakra glowed on his fingertips, death on sure wings. He took a fraction of a second to aim and his hand hit Naruto's heart. He grinned and proceeded to watch Naruto's death throes.

Only to be disappointed when Naruto gave him a lazy look and promptly exploded.

There was a hushed sound as the explosion took place. All the jounin teachers were staring at the arena with eyes bulging. Who the hell had been crazy enough to teach a kid who could spam out clones by the dozens that trick?

Kyuubi chuckled as he held back a sneeze.

The smoke cleared from the arena to reveal a slowly shifting dome of chakra. A moment later it cleared revealing a slightly burnt Neji. Neji gasped as he brought oxygen within his lungs once again.

Neji's byakugan shifted, and searched for the blonde. Obviously Uzumaki was a far more dangerous opponent than he had perceived at first. Not that it would matter; he had a bloodline and fate on his side.

He could not possibly los-_what the hell_?!

In the air above the arena sat an unusual sight. Actually it would be more accurate to say it floated.

Flapping its wings a giant bird flew in the air. Naruto grinned from where he sat on it, watching Neji's face.

The shock on it was _delicious_.

"So" Naruto smiled "How good are you at long distance?"

**PAGE BREAK**

Maito Gai could be said to have multiple qualities.

Delusional, loud and completely lacking in fashion sense were just a few of them. However arrogant was not one of them.

So when his jaw dropped and he observed the fight, it really meant something.

Lee gasped from his position at the chair with his crutches "….How?"

The strategy was simple yet brilliant. Keep your distance from the opponent and simply blast them into submission. Maito Gai began to wonder how no one had thought of this strategy…or had it simply been because there was multiple non-hyuuga ninja around the target at the time.

In any other situation, Gai would have been pleased that his student would be learning humility. Especially at the hands of the dead-last who was proving himself to be a dead-last only on paper. It would have been an educating experience and Neji probably would have gotten some meaning out of the experience.

But not now.

He had seen the look in Naruto's eyes when he had stepped in. This was not the same child who had learned the Kage bunshin, and stepped in to the forest of death. Either something had changed within the forest or Naruto had been hiding his real personality for all this time. It was more likely to be the first one; Naruto was one of the few genin that could actually say they walked away from Orochimaru alive.

The child who flew (when had he gotten his hands on a bird summoning contract anyway?) above his student was decidedly more ruthless, more powerful and simply more intelligent. A winning combination for any shinobi out in the battlefield.

The problem was that those winning conditions were now being implemented on a _fellow leaf-nin_.

Gai just hoped that he wouldn't have to leap in to save his student.

**PAGE BREAK**

"Kaiten!"

Hyuuga Neji spun as yet another volley of swords flew out from the blonde. The swords vanished into puffs of smoke as it made contact with the swirl of chakra. Moments later, the gasping Hyuuga stopped doing the Kaiten.

His face was red-not just from the need for oxygen, but from embarrassment. The Kaiten was supposed to be a trump card of his, for later opponents, not the blonde doofus. The perfect defense shouldn't have to even been used against an opponent such as this.

He had already used it four times.

So he discovered a flaw within his own technique. It consumed too much chakra, along with his continuous use of the byakugan. As it was he was having to shut off the byakugan for short periods to conserve his chakra reserve.

The blonde bastard knew it too.

"Looking exhausted Hyuuga? I guess the Kaiten never factored in repeated long-distance assaults instead of single long-distance assaults." Naruto smiled as he started a mental countdown.

"I will…still prevail. Fate says so." Hyuuga Neji wasn't about to admit that the jyuuken was flawed-especially not in front of the Hyuuga elders. They tended to rave at such an assertion….

"Did fate tell you about the explosion tag behind you?" Naruto innocently inquired.

Rather than make a novice mistake and turn around, Neji briefly activated his eyes.

He smirked as he saw nothing and smugly asserted "Cute tric-"

The clone who had dug underneath the arrogant Hyuuga violently exploded. The clone had also taken the liberty of spreading a flammable gas around the hole where he was. In circumstances above ground, the gas would have dissipated because of winds and open space. Underground, it stayed in place around the clone.

Normally Neji would have been ready for underground assaults. Several shinobi had attempted such maneuvers against him before. After the first time in which a kunai had penetrated his foot from below, he had been careful to check underground.

However, Neji had suffered from inattentional blindness and fixation on a target. He had been so focused on the blonde that was flying above him, he hadn't even taken time to look underground. Naruto had even asked him to check behind him to distract him further.

Neji knew the instant the explosion happened that none of the maneuvers in the jyuuken would help him. Kaiten would make the explosion worse because it would contain the flame within the chakra sphere, roasting him completely. So he used a trick he had seen a former opponent of his do.

He hardened himself with chakra.

It was literally the only thing that kept him alive, and in one piece.

The Hyuuga was thrown up, the flame stripping him of skin. There was a moment of hang time where he was at almost the same visual level as Naruto. So he saw the blonde mouth some words that infuriated him.

"Surprise Fucker."

He didn't have time to contemplate it further when he landed violently. There was the sound of bone breaking as his legs collapsed beneath him and his arms took the brunt of the force. He screamed in pain as his second degree burns were rubbed raw on the ground.

To him the world seemed to be moving slowly. Shock, he realized as he couldn't even feel the pain in his legs or arms. He saw his teacher approaching him at extreme speeds. He saw his opponent looking down at him with a neutral look, still on the bird.

Somehow the sight of his opponent spurned him further. Ignoring the pain racking his legs, he stood up shaking. His opponent's eyebrows rose nearly off his forehead and his mouth opened slightly in shock. A motion to move forward was aborted by the referee, and his own teacher.

"Neji." Gai sadly smiled "It's over."

As if waiting for the signal, his legs collapsed beneath him. He could do nothing as he was picked up the stretcher by the medic nins. He heard the declaration of victory to Naruto.

A little ironic fact made its way known inside his head. When he had gotten up from being nearly blown up, it had been exactly like his teammate Lee. Complete with broken legs, and his teacher approaching him.

The difference was….

Where Lee had stood, Neji had fallen.

What was it made that people like Naruto and Lee fight against such odds? They were both clan less and yet both had achieved levels of power that were formidable. Both were ridiculed by the village and yet both had continued on.

The answer came to him and caused a fit of laughter.

Simple, bloody-minded _Will power_.

The will to break from the restraints imposed on them.

It had not been Lee or Naruto who had been weak…it had been _him_.

**PAGE BREAK**

Naruto raised an eye brow at the fit of laughter from his downed opponent.

Odd…since when did people laugh when they lost? Especially since he had broken his leg bones, and severely charred his skin. Naruto shrugged; it must have been some sort of epiphany.

He noticed the looks he was getting from the audience, and his own comrades. There was a noticeable silence from the audience, and no clapping. Obviously they hadn't expected for fellow ninja to kill each other.

Naruto scoffed. After some creative…borrowing, he had managed to get videos from the past chunin exams to watch.

This was positively _tame_ compared to previous ones.

He kept a careful look on his comrades to see if any of them were going to act.

So he was completely blindsided when someone punched him in the face.

Shaking his head, he turned around in a combat stance to see an angry Tenten.

"You…nearly killed him." Her response came like a boiling kettle.

Naruto smiled "Yep."

Tenten snarled and reached down for her Kunai pouch. The audience around started to back away from the engaging scuffle.

Naruto relaxed, as a green blur appeared behind Tenten and stopped her from taking more action. Maito Gai's face looked like it was frozen in stone as he looked at Naruto, and his eyes never moved away from Naruto.

Maito Gai, Naruto thought, had always been a mystery. His actions and speech were all goofy, and seemingly out of this world. Various times it seemed to waver the line between being a mask and his real self.

Naruto suddenly knew that the Maito Gai he was seeing was the real deal. This didn't make him feel any better.

Without a word, Maito Gai forced Tenten to go back to her seat. His face was still frozen into stone, and Naruto quietly shivered.

Ignoring any survival instincts that told him to not be within a mile radius of the man, Naruto quietly sat down and observed the match.


End file.
